Indian Supreme Court Strikes Down Law Against Posting 'Offensive' Content Online

palemantle writes: The Indian Supreme Court has overturned the controversial Section 66A of the IT Act which included a provision for a three-year jail term for sending "offensive" messages through a "computer resource or a communication device." In its judgement, the Supreme Court held "liberty of thought and expression as cardinal" and overturned the provision (66A) deeming it "unconstitutional." It's been in the news recently for an incident involving the arrest of a high school student for posting allegedly "offensive" content on Facebook about a local politician.

Comments

World War III

[OrangeTide]

So when some random loud mouth on India's side decided to post Mohammad jokes, is this going to devolve into a shooting war with Pakistan? And would the US and EU side with India, and the League of Arab States side with Pakistan. And next thing we're all fighting a multi-theater war triggered by something disproportionally small?

ps - I'm an American and was raised to believe the right to free speech is sacrosanct. But India's neighbor's aren't quite as friendly as the US's, and there can be serious repercussions to what would ordinarily be a purely domestic issue. While Pakistan's current government (the PML-N party) is fairly stable and has generally been interested with cooperating and trade with the US, EU and China, the PML-N has always been at odds with India of Kashmir, and the current PM was the same individual who escalated the nuclear tension in the region by ordering the first nuclear tests in Pakistan.